It is a league season that has greatly underwhelmed.
When Jose Mourinho was announced as Manchester United manager, there was optimism amongst most supporters that while the Portuguese tactician may not invest in the long-term future of the club, in the short term, he would get the club back to the top.
Mourinho was brought in as a quick fix to the post Alex Ferguson malaise which had seen the club go backwards at an alarming rate. After the failed tenures of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, United turned to the tried and tested Mourinho to deliver some much needed respite.
Mourinho has however been unable to turn around the club’s poor league form. As things stand, it is very possible the Portuguese will finish the season at a lower position than Louis van Gaal managed in his second and final season at the helm.
Excuses, excuses
Many excuses have been given for United's inability to take off under Mourinho but no argument is strong enough to offer any other conclusion than that as far as the league is concerned, the Portuguese has greatly under performed. Yes, United have suffered with injuries but this is not new for the club. Historically, United have produced some of their best performances when the squad has been decimated by injuries. In these times, other players have stepped up, tactics have been tweaked and the team has pulled through.
Who can forget John Oshea's stint as a central midfielder or Mikael Silvestre's move from left to centre back or indeed the Champions League final of 1999, where United were without the services of two of their most important players in Roy Keane and Paul Scholes and then there was the emergence of Marcus Rashford last season. Faced with these challenges, Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t spend his energy moaning about players not being willing to play with only one functioning leg, even Louis van Gaal did not do this, in all these circumstances United found a way to win in the face of adversity.
The number of players injured, as significant as it has been this season, is not the main reason for United’s mediocre performances in the league, the main reason for the team’s inability to challenge for the title or finish in the top four has been a lack of cutting edge in the final third. United’s record at Old Trafford this season is abysmal, the team has failed to win games where it has been completely dominant and while there is an argument that takes the responsibility for the teams profligacy in front of goal away from the manager, he has done little to change this pattern repeating itself over and over again.
Safety first, at all times
The main reason for this is probably Mourinho’s safety first approach which has seen him reluctant to play two up top even when the opposition are offering nothing as an attacking unit. As a result, United have remained predictable as well as wasteful and the manager has been unable to find the system or personnel to resolve this problem. The one time the manager played with two mobile strikers, United defeated champions elect Chelsea in a truly dominant display yet Mourinho has been reluctant to go down this road.
Against the bigger teams in the league, he has mostly set up his team as though he believes they are inferior to his opponents, playing what can only be described as a nine-zero-one system with seven centre backs, two full backs and one very isolated forward. Such exploits have left the likes of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan chasing after wingers and full backs and burning up their energy doing so to the point where they have nothing to offer from an attacking perspective.
Away to Arsenal on Sunday, playing against a poor Arsenal side, one that was very low on confidence and in an environment that was ready to turn toxic against its team at any moment, Mourinho could have chosen to take the game to Arsenal, especially as he had decided it wasn’t a match worth winning which was evident from his team selection.
No one knows how to beat Arsenal more than Mourinho and so the United manager would have known that to beat his old adversary, he would need dynamic and mobile midfielders that would outrun the Arsenal midfield and quick direct players in attack. By playing a midfield three that included Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick and leaving the likes of Paul Pogba, Antonio Valencia and Marcus Rashford on the bench, Mourinho must have known he was going against his trusted template of how to beat Arsenal. On that basis, he might as well have attacked them, instead United played dire defensive football and lost.
All eggs in the Europe basket
It is not a surprise though that Mourinho was willing to risk a defeat here which would harm the team’s top four prospects, than take a chance on players like Pogba or Rashford getting injured.
This is because as things stand now, Mourinho has had an abysmal first season as Manchester United manager, but should he win against Celta Vigo on Thursday and then in the final that follows, then suddenly it goes from an abysmal first season to a good one. A Europa league victory would see United finish the season with one domestic trophy, one European trophy and qualification to the group stages of the Champions league (as thing stand) and that by any measure is a good season.
The Portuguese has no doubt weighed this up and come to this conclusion, hence throwing all his eggs into the Europa league basket and refusing to risk an already stretched squad in the rigours of Premier league games. It is a big gamble, as though winning two games would seem more feasible than winning 4, football is not always logical and it is often the games that look horrible on paper that end up giving the most dividends whilst those that seemed relatively straight forward turn out to be banana skins.
With Liverpool dropping points to Southampton, Mourinho had the chance to make sure a top four finish was in his team’s hands, he passed up that opportunity, now he must hope his players stand up and deliver in Europe and in doing so turn a forgettable season into a truly memorable one.